Synlait Milk realigns senior team

Synlait Milk has
appointed Mike Lee to the newly created role of General
Manager Sales reporting to the Managing Director Dr John
Penno.

Dr Penno says the appointment follows a decision
to combine the previously separate Ingredient and
Nutritional sales teams in order to better serve its
customers.

“Over the past year we have made significant
business development progress particularly with our tier one
multinational customers. We are increasingly selling a range
of products to them and we need to provide a single point of
contact to better manage these relationships. The change to
the senior team structure will also increase accountability
and reduce operating complexity for us going forward,”
said Dr Penno.

Mike Lee will oversee the sales function
for the Company. He has over 15 years dairy industry
experience in business development and sales roles in New
Zealand, Asia and Europe, and takes up the position after
being with Synlait Milk for almost three years in the
position of General Manager Ingredient Sales.

“The
infant formula market in China continues to be important to
us and we are seeing new opportunities beginning to emerge
as the regulatory changes taking place in that market begin
to bed down. Working in China requires good relationships
and a strong technical understanding, and therefore we have
appointed Dr Tony McKenna as Regional Sales Manager - China
Nutritionals reporting to Mike Lee.

“Tony has over 12
years’ experience in the China market, four years of which
have been while working at Synlait Milk, and this
appointment will allow us to put even greater focus on
developing our infant formula and nutritional business,”
said Dr Penno.

Synlait Milk is in the final stages of
completing construction of a $27 million dry blending and
consumer packaging facility, and expects to be granted
registration to export finished infant formula into China
following the approval of its Risk Management Plan by the
Ministry for Primary
Industries.

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